How To Repair Plastic Bumper

How to repair plastic bumper covers.
Learn tips on how to repair and bond plastic bumpers.

I take been asked many times how to repair a plastic bumper comprehend. So I made this short article and kept it simple without all the fancy long plastic names that manufacturers like to use.

I had the opportunity to meet Dick Jacobs, he was the founder of Duramix, the plastic adhesive repair company which was bought out by 3M a few years back.

Dick was one of us, a very simple focused man, constantly thinking about what innovation he could come with for the Duramix product line and spoke in very simple terms merely extremely thorough.

1 twenty-four hours we picked him up at the airport, we got in the car and I asked him a technical question. We drove in heavy traffic for nigh 45 minutes, had dinner for most 2 hours and then drove him to the hotel which was he was staying at. He got off the motorcar and wrapped upwardly the answer to my question about micro-spheres in SMC panels.

Everyone in the car that mean solar day got a very educational crash course well-nigh polymers, plastics, micro-spheres and SMC composition. The other lesson is never ask a technical question to an engineer unless you lot accept a lot of time and notation pads.

I am going to show you a simple method of repairing plastic panels and TPO bumpers.

1. There are simply four types of plastic you should know nigh in the automotive industry.

1. TPO - Sands in chunks, melts similar butter with loftier speed grinders, feels like wax and gets stringy when hot.
2. Thermo-Set - Flexible or Rigid, sands powdery, does not melt with high speed grinders and piece of cake to repair.
3. SMC- Canvass molded Compound - New Corvettes have it and looks similar fiberglass with white pulverisation. Nosotros will cover SMC in another commodity.
4. Poly propylene - RV H2o Tanks, Clay Cycle Fenders - Not recommended for repairing or painting.

2. Any Plastic Repair system yous choose will contain these components.

1. A cleaning agent
2. Adhesion Promoter
3. A mixing gun applicator
4. Agglutinative/Fabric for the structure repair
5. Mixing Tips
6. Flexible contouring plastic and backing re-enforcement material
7. Finishing Past/Putty

3. Lets talk about TPO Plastic. This is the most difficult plastic in the market to repair. It contains three% to v% wax based mold release within the material. So that's the trouble, how do we become adhesive or paint to stick to mold release? Many store owners and technicians today will just rather non impact information technology and throw the bumper away. TPO is repairable, but you accept to have ii precautions without exception. If you tin prepare TPO bumpers, you can set up the thermo set the same way, if you are non sure which of the 2 you have on hand, treat it like TPO. If you don't know what TPO stands for, it does non affair because with my system you don't have to know. Repair information technology similar this and you volition be fine.

1. Later you sand the repair area follow these cleaning steps, they are the key in repairing plastic bumpers successfully. Use a grayness or white scuff pad and scrub the repair area of the bumper or plastic panel with the cleaning agent first, a uncomplicated wipe is not going to work. It may work sometimes only may fail in others. Neon Bumpers may require ii or 3 cleaning steps. The principal reason bumper repairs fail is by not doing this step thoroughly. How exercise you know the plastic is clean? I use the water test. If the water beads upward like a freshly waxed car or only disappears off the plastic, clean it again, then try the procedure over again until the water stays there wet for a while.

   Practise non use sanding paste on raw plastic. Sanding paste is non part of the plastic repair system mentioned above nor solvent based wax and grease removers. These products will contaminate the plastic. You will have mold release freshly activated by wax and grease remover solvents. That'south not good. Always utilise the cleaning agent the manufacturer recommends.

   

2. For this example I am going to utilize a bumper that has a 9" ten one/4" ripped pigsty shaped like a alphabetic character " 50 "  right in the center of the  corner. This seems to be a very common repair in the auto body manufacture.
   1. I utilise a small angle air grinder with a 2" 36 grit disc to sand off the rugged edges of the harm until information technology is all smooth and shaped like a basin or a river. This fashion the construction agglutinative has more surface area to grab. The edges flow down at an angle for i/2". Some people refer to it as  "bevel sand the edges" . Do non apply the V groove method considering this is likewise narrow for the adhesive to take hold of. Pic the V groove just spread out over a good area similar a bowl.
   2. Optional Stride. Drill ane/8" holes in the surface area grooves about 1" apart, This will allow structural cloth to flow through the holes and make an H re-enforced repair with the holes acting every bit rebar fillings.
   3. Dorsum sand the front and back with lxxx grit sand paper.
3. Clean the repair over again, once the panel is make clean, you have 30 minutes to use your materials. Practise non wait longer than that because the mold release will start to emerge to the surface of the bumper. The faster you get on it subsequently the cleaning the meliorate your repair will be.
4. Apply Adhesion Promoter on both sides and wait at least x minutes or what e'er the manufacturer recommends.
5. Purge the two role cartridge earlier placing the mixing tip on. After placing the tip, purge about 2 inches of material on a paper-thin and make certain the fabric looks all one color.

6. Apply structural repair textile to a backing re-enforcement slice, enough to embrace at least 1 inch around the dorsum side of the repair. Apply the backing cloth piece to the dorsum side of the bumper and the allow the material ooze out through the holes and groove, then gun some more material while information technology is still moisture and place a contouring plastic on the top and spread it out using a spreader or your manus to match the contour of the bumper edges.

7. Expect one hour, and so sand with depression RPM speed.

8. Stop off with a Plastic Finishing Putty or filler.

This guide is generic in content and we recommend you follow the manufacturers instructions. Each manufacturer may incorporate different recommendations in order for their production to perform the all-time.

Product Lines we comport for Plastic Repair

Source: https://www.autobodysupply.net/articles.asp?id=135

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